India on Sunday (April 12) categorically rejected China's renaming of some places in Arunachal Pradesh and said such claims and attempts to manufacture baseless narratives cannot alter the "undeniable reality" that they are part of Indian territories. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement said that China should refrain from actions which inject negativity into relations and undermine efforts to create better understanding.
In response to media queries over China assigning new names to certain locations, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "India categorically rejects any mischievous attempts by the Chinese side to assign fictitious names to places which form part of the territory of India."
'Cannot alter undeniable reality': MEA
He asserted that such moves by China, including creating false claims and baseless narratives, do not change the fact that these regions, including Arunachal Pradesh, have always been and will remain an integral part of India. "Such attempts by China at introducing false claims and manufacturing baseless narratives cannot alter the undeniable reality that these places and territories, including Arunachal Pradesh, were, are, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India," he said.
Jaiswal further added that these actions undermine ongoing efforts to stabilise and normalise bilateral ties between the two countries, and urged China to avoid steps that create negativity and hinder mutual understanding.
India-China territorial disputes
This diplomatic pushback comes amidst persisting friction regarding territorial disputes in Ladakh, where Beijing has established a fresh administrative division in the Xinjiang region, situated near the borders of Afghanistan and PoK.
The new county, identified as "Cenling," was officially sanctioned by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government on March 26 and will fall under the jurisdiction of the "Kashgar prefecture," according to a report in the South China Morning Post. Positioned in the vicinity of the "Karakoram mountain range," the creation of this unit carries significant geopolitical weight due to its proximity to both Afghanistan and PoK.
This development marks the third time in just over a year that China has carved out a new county within Xinjiang. New Delhi has previously raised formal objections with Beijing regarding the formation of "Hean" and "Hekang" counties, maintaining that portions of the land designated under Chinese jurisdiction actually belong to the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Specifically, the "Hean county" encompasses a large section of the "Aksai Chin" plateau. While this territory has been under Chinese administration since the 1962 conflict, India continues to view it as an integral part of Ladakh, leaving it as a primary source of bilateral discord.
The administrative hub for the new county, "Kashgar," is a prominent historical site on the "Silk Road" and functions as a vital link between China and South and Central Asia. Furthermore, it serves as the origin of the "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor," a multi-billion dollar infrastructure project that traverses through PoK, a move India has repeatedly protested as a violation of its sovereignty.
Although the precise "administrative divisions and boundaries" of Cenling remain undisclosed, the location of the unit near sensitive zones underscores the high level of concern regarding China's ongoing administrative restructuring along international borders.
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